1992 World Disaster

World aerospace, fire and explosion, marine, mine, natural, rail, traffic and miscellaneous disaster.

1992: Disasters

AEROSPACE

1.      California. A light plane carrying sky divers crashed during takeoff from the Perris Valley Airport in southern California on April 22; 16 people lost their lives. The plane was missing important safety devices.

2.      China. On July 31 a Soviet-made Yakovlev-42 airliner crashed on takeoff from Nanjing, killing 106 of the 126 people aboard. The plane apparently failed to lift off properly and burst into flames not far from the runway.

3.      China. A Russian-Built Mi-17 helicopter crashed into a store in Henan Province on November 5 while dropping advertising material on a crowd; 33 people were killed, and more than 40 injured.

4.      China. A Chinese Boeing 737 carrying 141 people crashed in the southwestern part of the country on November 24, killing all aboard in what was China's worst civilian air disaster.

5.      Dominican Republic. A Cuban aircraft carrying 34 passengers and crew members crashed on November 15 after clipping a mountain peak near Puerto Plata; all aboard were killed.

6.      France. On January 20 an Airbus A-320 jetliner flying from Lyons to Strasbourg crashed in a remote, heavily forested region in the Vosges Mountains. Rescuers, hampered by rain and snow, reached the crash site but were able to save only 9 of the 96 people on board.

7.      Georgia. A Tu-154 cargo plane plunged into apartment houses in Alekseyevka, near Tbilisi, on July 20; more than 40 people were killed, 30 of them on the ground.

8.      Hawaii. On April 22 a twin-engine sightseeing plane crashed into a mountainside on Maui Island, killing all nine people aboard. Five months later, on September 17, a helicopter carrying tourists crashed into an inactive volcano, killing all seven people on board.

9.      Illinois. A Beechcraft B-18 plane carrying sky divers crashed into a field in De Kalb County on September 7; all 12 on board were killed.

10.  Indiana. Shortly after taking off from the Evansville airport on February 6, an Air National Guard C-130 transport plane plunged into a motel and restaurant, which then caught fire. In all, 16 people were killed, including 11 on the ground.

11.  Indonesia. On July 24 a Vickers Viscount passenger plane crashed into a mountain in western Java while attempting a landing in a rainstorm. All 70 people aboard died.

12.  Indonesia. On October 18 a CN-235 domestic airliner with 31 passengers and crew members crashed into a mountain in western Java; all aboard were killed.

13.  Iran. A Fokker Friendship F-27 commuter plane crashed southwest of Tehran on April 26, claiming the lives of all 39 people aboard.

14.  Libya. A Libyan Boeing 727 airliner crashed near Tripoli on December 22, killing all 157 people aboard.

15.  Nepal. On July 31 a Thai Airways Airbus A300-310 jet carrying 113 people on a rainy flight from Bangkok to Katmandu crashed into a Himalayan mountain south of Katmandu. There were no survivors.

16.  Nepal. On September 28 a Pakistani Airlines Airbus A-300 jetliner with many foreign tourists aboard crashed into a pine-covered hillside while on a landing approach south of Katmandu. All 167 aboard died.

17.  Netherlands. On October 4 an EI Al cargo jet plunged into two nine-story apartment buildings in a poor suburb of Amsterdam, shortly after losing two of its engines and a tail cone, and set off a huge conflagration. About 40 people were killed, including all 4 aboard the plane.

18.  New York City. A USAir Fokker F-28 attempting to take off from La Guardia Airport on March 22 skipped down the runway, hit an embankment, and rolled into Flushing Bay; 27 of the 51 on board were killed. Investigations indicated that the plane had not been deiced soon enough before takeoff.

19.  Nigeria. In the country's worst air disaster since 1973, a military transport plane carrying 163 passengers plummeted into a swamp shortly after takeoff from Lagos on September 26. All aboard the Hercules C-130 were killed.

20.  North Sea. A Super Puma helicopter crashed near the Shetland Islands on March 14, killing ten oil workers and the copilot; it had steadily lost elevation while leaving the pad on a Shell oil platform.

21.  Panama. A Boeing 737-200 airliner crashed into the jungle southeast of Panama City on June 6; all 47 people aboard were killed.

22.  Portugal. A Dutch DC-10 carrying 340 people crashed in Faro on December 21, killing 54. The plane was buffeted by high winds while it was attempting to land and slammed into the runway.

23.  Russia. A Tupolev-134 passenger plane crashed into a house in Ivanovo on August 27. All 75 passengers and 7 crew members were killed, and a woman in the house was injured.

24.  Russia. An Mi-6 military helicopter crashed near the Black Sea on November 5, after apparently striking the side of a cliff; at least 30 people lost their lives.

25.  Russia and Azerbaijan. There was a series of fatal crashes involving Antonov aircraft. An Antonov-12 military plane carrying families of Russian soldiers crashed during takeoff on July 14 in the Azerbaijani territory of Nakhich-evan; at least 19 people died. On October 19 an Antonov-28 twin-turboprop crashed in northern Russia, killing 15, and an Antonov-8 cargo plane crashed in Siberia on October 30, killing 12 of the 13 aboard. On November 11 an Antonov-22 military transport plane crashed and burst into flames as it was taking off from an airport outside Moscow; all 23 aboard lost their lives.

26.  Senegal. On February 9 a chartered airliner en route from the capital city of Dakar to a Club Med resort crashed into a marsh, killing 31 of the 56 people on board.

27.  Utah. An MH-60G Air Force helicopter carrying 13 military personnel crashed into the Great Salt Lake on October 29 while on a joint Army-Air Force exercise during stormy weather; there was 1 survivor.

28.  Vietnam. A Vietnamese Yak-40 airplane carrying 31 people crashed during a typhoon shortly after taking off from Ho Chi Minh City on November 14; no survivors were reported.

29.  Virginia. A prototype of the V-22 Osprey attempting to land at the Marine air station at Quantico crashed in the Potomac River on July 20, killing seven people. The Navy Mishap Board later determined the cause to be mechanical failure.

30.  Yemen. An airplane carrying 52 passengers and 6 crew members crashed in a sandstorm near Aden on July 15; all aboard were killed.

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

31.  France. An explosion killed five people at a state-controlled oil refinery on November 9; the blast shattered windows in nearby towns and was felt some 18 miles away in Marseille.

32.  Hong Kong. More than 20 Vietnamese in a refugee camp were burned to death on February 4 in what began as a dispute between gangs over hot water. The fire started when a mob stuffed burning towels through the windows of a hut that was locked from the inside; among the dead were 5 children.

33.  Mexico. More than 200 people died and hundreds of others were injured when a series of explosions ripped through downtown Guadalajara on April 22. The explosions were attributed to gasoline fumes caused by a leak in a pipe belonging to Pemex, the government-owned oil company. Nine government and oil company officials were charged with negligent homicide.

34.  Senegal. A tanker truck filled with liquid ammonia exploded at a peanut-processing plant in Dakar on March 24; nearly 100 died.

35.  Taiwan. Twenty children and three adults were killed when a tour bus burst into flames on May 15 in Taipei. The fire, which the driver said had started in the engine, had ignited cans of butane gas kept near the driver's seat.

MARINE

36.  Haiti. At least 35 departing refugees drowned on July 19 when their small boat capsized and sank after being fired upon by Haitian police.

MINE

37.  Nova Scotia. On May 9 an explosion in a Plymouth coal mine left 26 miners dead. The mining company and four managers faced 18 charges of violating mining safety regulations.

38.  Turkey. On March 3 a methane explosion killed more than 260 miners near the city of Kozlu. After 118 bodies were recovered from the Incirharmani mine, raging flames forced rescuers to seal the passages, leaving the remaining victims entombed.

NATURAL

39.  Afghanistan. On September 4 the Shutul River, swollen from heavy rains, swept across Gulbahar—about 50 miles north of Kabul— sweeping away one of the town's major bridges, destroying hundreds of homes, ravaging crops, and killing at least 400 people.

40.  Bahamas and southeastern United States. After killing at least 4 people in the Bahamas, Hurricane Andrew struck south Florida on August 24, bringing winds measured at over 160 miles per hour and strong tidal waves; it moved across the Gulf of Mexico, striking the Louisiana coast on August 26. The storm killed at least 76 people in the two states and caused an estimated $20 billion in damage, leaving some 160,000 people homeless.

41.  Bolivia. A mudslide carrying tons of rocks and debris buried the remote gold-mining camp of Llipi on the Tipuani River on December 7. At least 150 were reported killed, with hundreds more missing.

42.  Brazil. Dozens of people died when a landslide buried part of a shantytown in an outlying district of Belo Horizonte on March 18.

43.  California. The most powerful earthquake to strike California in 40 years shook the Yucca Valley east of Los Angeles early on June 28; it was followed three hours later by a second quake. Hundreds were treated for injuries, but there was only one fatality—a 3½-year-old child crushed by a falling chimney.

44.  China. Heavy rains and hailstorms struck the northern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu in early August, causing flash floods and landslides that killed more than 100 people.

45.  Egypt. A strong earthquake, with its epicenter located near Cairo, struck on October 12. More than 550 people were killed, many of them schoolchildren, and close to 10,000 suffered injuries.

46.  France. On September 22, in the country's worst storm since 1958, flash floods killed about 50 people in southeastern France, including at least 28 in Vaison-la-Romaine, a small town on the Ouvèze River.

47.  Guam. On August 28, Typhoon Omar swept across the U.S. territory of Guam with winds as high as 150 miles per hour, destroying 2,000 homes in its wake and causing an estimated $300 million worth of damages; there was one fatality.

48.  Hawaii. On September 11, Hurricane Iniki struck Hawaii, particularly the island of Kauai, seriously damaging some 10,000 homes and destroying vital cash crops. Casualties were relatively light, with six deaths reported on Kauai and two on the main island of Oahu.

49.  Indonesia. A strong earthquake struck the eastern part of the country on December 12. The quake caused waves as high as 80 feet, which engulfed entire villages, and claimed more than 2,000 lives.

50.  Kyrgyzstan. More than 70 people were killed in an earthquake near the border with China, as almost 200 shocks shook the mountainous farming region on August 19.

51.  Nicaragua. A strong earthquake, with its epicenter some 35 miles offshore in the Pacific, set off tidal waves up to 50 feet high across the Pacific coast of the country on September 1. Hundreds of homes were lost, and at least 116 people were left dead.

52.  Pakistan. Monsoon rains that hit Pakistan in late July and early August left at least 34 people dead and caused heavy crop damage in Sind Province, located in the southern region of the country.

53.  Pakistan and India. Torrential rains in early September caused landslides and cataclysmic flooding across large areas of Pakistan and northern India. The official death toll was placed at 1,184, but unofficial estimates were as high as 2,500. Hardest hit was Pakistan's Punjab Province, where over 3 million people were forced to evacuate their homes.

54.  South America. In the worst flooding to hit the region since 1983, heavy rain in late May and early June caused three rivers in Paraguay, Argentina, and southern Brazil to overflow, leaving about 30 people dead.

55.  Tajikistan. On May 13-15 massive mudslides brought on by heavy rains left more than 200 people dead and caused extensive damage.

56.  Turkey. During the month of February a series of avalanches in the southeastern region covered numerous mountain villages and claimed more than 200 lives.

57.  Turkey. On March 13 a strong earthquake struck near Erzincan, killing over 500 people and injuring hundreds of others. The quake was followed by avalanches and landslides, which destroyed many buildings and damaged roads and power and telephone lines, hampering rescue efforts.

58.  United States. More than 150 tornadoes tore through 11 states from June 15 to June 17, leaving 6 people dead and dozens injured. Tornadoes racing across the Southwest on November 22 killed at least 16.

59.  Vietnam. On July 23-24, mudslides caused by storms and floods in the northern province of Cao Bang, about 115 miles north of Hanoi, killed close to 200 people and left over 30,000 homeless.

RAIL

60.  Minnesota and Wisconsin. On June 30 some 50,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses after a freight train with a tank car containing benzene derailed, releasing clouds of toxic vapors over sections of Wisconsin and Minnesota. At least 25 were taken to hospitals.

TRAFFIC

61.  China. On April 3 more than 50 passengers died when a bus exploded and burned in Hunan Province.

62.  Egypt. A military bus and a fuel-oil tanker collided and caught fire near the Mediterranean port of Marsa Matruh on July 17, killing 48 people.

63.  Egypt. A school bus rear-ended a trailer truck near the Red Sea port of Safaga on November 9; a total of 18 children and 8 teachers were killed.

64.  Guatemala. A bus carrying teenage Mexican dancers on tour plummeted off a mountain road near Antigua on July 20, killing 25.

65.  New Jersey. On July 26 a chartered bus carrying Brooklyn families to an amusement park careened into two cars and burst into flames; six people lost their lives.

66.  Spain. On August 19 a tourist bus traveling from Barcelona to Seville failed to round a sharp curve and crashed down a steep embankment, killing at least 45 people.

MISCELLANEOUS

67.  France. On May 5, moments before the start of play in a French Cup semifinal at a soccer stadium on the island of Corsica, a temporary grandstand collapsed; 14 people lost their lives.

68.  India. More than 200 people died in May from drinking contaminated liquor that had been illegally brewed in the eastern state of Orissa.